For her “Exceptional Character, Hard Work, Commitment and Application of Our Values”, RMI congratulates Merry Raymond as our “Missionary of the Month” for March 2016. We are grateful for Merry’s work in our Hope for Kidz office. She never tires in her work unto the Lord.
Are you prepared and ready? We are ministers of the Gospel. We are ministers of reconciliation. We are to be on this mission.
We believe that every gospel conversation is unique and is a divine appointment to lift of the name of Jesus with love and grace and call people to repentance. Here are a few firm convictions we have…
Today is the birthday of our very own Benjamin Altema. Benjamin is RMI’s Field Administrator. He is a constant servant. He is a wise leader. He loves Jesus. He loves his family. He loves RMI. He is called by God to change the world for the sake of the Christ. He is on mission. He is our friend.
It is our honor today to wish you… Bonn Fèt and Happy Birthday!
Some of you might think I am talking about driving on Haitian roads… I am not. We are fully engaged in “the work”. Will you please pray for us in all these activities. It isn’t about being busy, but it is about intentionally working hard, consistently, in the work that God has called us to. The work of changing lives for Him.
There is much other work happening too. Kids are being taught, office administration is in full swing, reports are being developed and updates are being written, bags are being packed, decisions are being made, pastors and school directors are visiting the office, etc.
The team is working hard. There are a lot of moving parts, in many different directions. Please pray.
You might be aware of Hope for Kidz, our child sponsorship program. Just the highlights… We have over 2000 children sponsored and receiving an education (Tuition, books, shoes, uniform, etc), over 5000 children eating a Hot Lunch every school day and next week we will be providing health education and deworming to over 17,000 children! We couldn’t be more excited!
One could say that helping a child get to school is only half of the battle. The other half is making sure they receive a Christ centered quality education. We are focusing more and more on making sure this happens. Here are just a few things we are doing toward this end…
Teacher Training – We want our teachers trained. It’s a desperate need. We have partnered with an organization who specializes in training Haitian teachers. Our desire is for all of the teachers and school directors form our partner schools to get advanced training. Right now, as I write, we have 75 teachers who are sitting in training. By the end of tomorrow, they will have finished modules #1 through #8 out of 12. These 75 teachers are now into their second year of the 2 year program. It’s exciting to watch! We can’t wait to roll out this same training to many more teachers starting fall 2016. More to come…
Monthly School Visits – Once a month, a member of our Partnership Facilitation team visits each school. While there, they observe, create reports, provide oversight and accountability. These observations and reports are a significant step in helping us understand the issues at hand.
NEW Hope for Kidz Monitor – We have recently added a position to our HFK team to help us gain deeper insight and to respond more quickly to observed needs in the lives of each of our sponsored children and partner schools. There is a story behind every child and every school. We want to know these stories so we can address child and school/educational development needs more quickly and effectively. This position exists to supervise, monitor, develop, and hold accountable all Hope for Kidz children, schools, teachers and school directors. In response to observations made, recommendations will be made, and quickly addressed. We are immediately addressing specialized teacher training needs with seminars. We will be watching and making recommendations on changing systems, schedule, curriculum, discipline, etc. We will be noting the absence of supplies, facilities and teaching aides and looking for ways to address these deficiencies.
Resourcing Schools – Because our Hope for Kidz program is done within the context of our Church Partnerships, we are able to collaborate with our US Partners to bring much needed resources to our Haitian schools. Did you know that we are actively building 2 schools right now? Did you know that we just provided 6 blackboards and 6 teacher’s desks to another school? Did you know that we just built a bathroom facility for another school? We love being able to partner with local churches and schools to provide the resources they need to provide a quality education.
We are incredibly excited about our initiatives to develop Schools of Excellence. Please pray and join us.
Our visiting short term teams are led by our Haitian team members with excellence. As Field Director, will you allow me the opportunity to give a shout out to our Haitian staff? I hope so, so here it goes…
We ask all of our visiting team members from the US to complete a survey once they return home. On one of those surveys, a recent US team member, speaking specifically about our Haitian Team Leader and Partnership Facilitators that went with them to visit their Sister Church, wrote, “I would say this is the standard others should strive for. I couldn’t imagine anything better”. Love it!
We like to say we are a “teaching mission”. We want to raise up, empower and release our Haitian Team to lead and do big things for Christ. I can say with all assurance, it’s happening and I couldn’t be more pleased. But my opinion doesn’t matter. I think God is pleased.
This post is a simple shout out to the deep integrity, commitment, hard work and leadership of our Haitian staff who are here on the ground making it happen.
Thank you for what you do, for Jesus and the furthering of His kingdom.
God says, “Man plans his way, but God determines the path.” The original trip from Creekside Community Church, Gainesville, FL, to visit their Sister Church in Baradere Haiti, was planned for the last week of August. But, since the team was flying directly to Les Cayes from Florida in a small, private plane, the trip was cancelled because of Tropical Storm Danny. It was rescheduled for the next Monday, but had to be postponed another day because of Tropical Storm Erika!
This was a VERY unique visit. The team had 2 purposes… First, they wanted to focus on Hope for Kidz child sponsorship initiatives by interviewing teachers, graduates and present sponsored children in the school. The second purpose was to get things started and/or see progress on the new school building that is being funded.
Except the pilot of the plane, all team members were veterans of C3P visits to Baradere. It was extremely enriching to everyone as team members talked with the pastor, his wife, the deacons, the cook ladies, and those involved with the school. Laughter between the host church and team members characterized the ease of communication and friendship between them. Individual conversations were video taped to help the team remember information from the interviews and to imprint the experience upon them and those at Creekside. Two of the team members hiked two hours one way up a mountain with the pastor and two RMI staff to experience what one sponsored child experiences each day as the child walks to and from school. Because they were walking, they were able to talk with several other children and families along the way. All the interviews at the parsonage, school, and homes led each team member to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the culture and of the school. All of the team members were impressed by the insight and qualifications of the teachers, as well as the complexity of questions asked by the recent graduates.
A statement (paraphrased) by the pilot, a first time visitor with RMI, summed up his impression of those families interviewed by the team. He said that he was amazed by the cleanliness and orderliness of the homes and the pride of the people even in the midst of such poverty. He wants to be included in future trips.
A group from Schuylkill Valley Bible Chapel arrived in Haiti after a two year hiatus led by the veteran husband and wife team, Pastor Steve and Mary Buerer. In addition to the mutual encouragement of the sister churches, the specific mission of this team was to install water filters and distribute food to Camp Perrine Church and some of its satellite churches. The team actively participated in installing 14 filters, but also left 6 more with the church to use as they felt best. Ten boxes of food were also brought along to be distributed to some of the families. The ongoing need for food and clean water was the motivation for this emphasis. Other activities during the week included a Ladies Tea and a Youth Program, both of which were well attended and enjoyed by all! Pastor Steve and Christian Leinbach added the benefit of their years of experience and study to a leadership conference held at the church. Perguens, one of our Partnership Facilitators and the Team Leader, said he also learned a lot from being involved. The three satellite churches visited were Ferme de Blanc, Ashille, and Mont Casse.
All the team members were very impressed by the facilities provided by the church at Camp Perrine! The men slept in a new addition above the rear of the church building constructed as an office for Pastor Astrell, and included a nice bathroom. Pastor Steve, his wife, and Lauren stayed in the Pastor’s home, the bathroom of which had also been renovated. Brian and Lauren as first-timers, were very impressed by the hospitality and self sacrifices of all the church members in serving us. They both said they would be happy to return if God called them and provided the means. Everyone was moved by the abundance of love and fellowship from all the churches’ members. The team felt they had accomplished more on this trip than any previous ones.
To God be the glory!
Over the last few years, we have had quite a few people donate to provide a goat to a family here in Haiti. We LOVE doing this and we do it very carefully. Here are a few things that we think you might not know, but we think that you might be interested to know…
Leadership Development in Action: The Global Leadership Follow-up Seminar (GLFS) here in Cayes, Haiti, is complete. We do this in coordination with our local MEBSH Bible School. We really appreciate the work of World Team missionary Sean Christenson and Bible School Director Pastor Jean Admettre.
We are grateful for the opportunity we have to invest in these men and women leaders. We pray God multiplies our investment to bring sustained change in the lives of those they lead. They are world changers!
